Traveling over ground and imagination

Tag Archives: IQF

Today celebrates 5 years that my Aunt Linda and I have been going to the International Quilt Festival! We had a fantastic day of shopping and looking at some marvelous artwork. I will be writing a more thorough post tomorrow, but wanted to share what I picked up today!

I really wanted to take one of the antique thread displays home with me, but they’re still running $700-$3000 and I’m still not willing to pay that much! They are gorgeous though.

I did pick up some new polka dot fabric. Have I mentioned how much I love polka dot fabric?! (deja vu) I have a vague idea of what I’m going to do with these beauties but I need to finish my other WIPs (work in progress) first.

We also saw a presentation about this foam (soft and stable) that makes your bags stand up instead of flop down on the table. This in turn makes them look more like they’re store bought instead of whipped up in the extra bedroom! I’ll give it a try first and if I like it then I’ll buy the bigger package as it’s not cheap! This package was about $14.00.

Last, I got this lovely bracelet with a Texas bell. Now, I jingle when I move! Aunt Linda got one too and we’re going to add a bell for each year we’re at the festival. We have 4 more to go to catch up to our 5 years!

It’s one of my favorite times of the year: The International Quilt Festival. Aunt Linda and I stopped for breakfast before hand to plan our strategy for today’s fun. After a hearty filling of pumpkin pancakes and iced tea we decided we would start shopping first to let the crowds clear out from the quilts so we could get better pictures…or at least easier pictures!

Since a cold front had blown in it was a bit chilly. The crew let us wait upstairs in the George R Brown Convention Center to get out of the wind.

Once the doors were opened we headed off to do some shopping!

The usual suspects were there (Alex Anderson was there but I didn’t get her picture).

Ricky Tims

Eleanor Burns

Ami Simms

It took us about 3 hours to go through all of the booths. It was great! So…what did I get? Some fun novelty fat quarters. I have an addiction to food prints. One day they will be made into a quilt. I also got two patterns (one for the state of Montana and one for Texas) as well as a strawberry pin cushion. Last, but not least I paid a pretty penny for a bracelet made up of Colonial Waistcoat Buttons from around 1780’s. Not sure if they’re truly from then, but if they are that’s outstanding and if not…well…they’re pretty!

If there’s one thing quilters like as much as quilting, it’s eating. Need proof?

After refortifying our energy reserves we headed out to look at the quilts. These are just a few that I liked. I’ll have another post soon of more!

Christmas is my favorite day, but in a close second comes Houston International Quilt Festival day!! I am rarely disappointed in any of the quilts on show. Each year my Aunt Linda and I pack up, get there before the doors open, then stay until the doors close…or we drop, which ever comes first. This year we did things a little differently. We started in the shopping area first, before looking at the quilts.

That wasn’t even 1/2 of the vendors there! I think we spent 4-5 hours shopping! I got some great goodies, but haven’t been able to take a picture of the stash yet because my battery died on my camera and I can’t find the charger. Whoops. We spotted familiar faces in the crowd!

Alex Anderson

Ricky Tims

They had some fantastic patterns and example quilts. This ws one of my favorites. The hand quilting is beautiful and I love how subtle the colors are. Reminds me of a winter landscape.

After resting our feet and filling our stomachs, we headed to the Quilts on display. This was a good move as there weren’t nearly the amount of people we normally have to wade through to get a good view and good pictures! We passed the Husband’s Lounge on our way and I had to snap a picture!

Right at the front was Ami Simms and her Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative. I love all Ami has done to help fight Alzheimer’s and she never fails to make me laugh with her blog. Such a great lady and one of the booths I look forward to seeing the most.

The quilts were beautiful, as usual! Here are a few to hold you over until my next post!